


Warm Hands On a Frigid Night

by hetalia_textbook



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: M/M, Mertalia, Titanic AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-28
Updated: 2015-08-28
Packaged: 2018-04-17 15:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,904
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4671245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hetalia_textbook/pseuds/hetalia_textbook
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alfred hadn't thought much about himself as he helped women and children find their way to the life boats. He struggled to stay above the surface of the freezing water as lifeboats drifted farther and farther away, and he quickly realized just how grave his situation was. Alfred was going to die, but a certain stranger wouldn't allow it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Warm Hands On a Frigid Night

Alfred fumbled out half formed apologies as he pushed past panicking passengers and rushing crewmen. The frigid air burned his lungs as his breaths came in heavy, airy puffs. He paused at the nearest railing, looking over at the drifting lifeboats. That was the last one, he was sure of it. He frowned when he finished counting the passengers. That lifeboat wasn’t even full. Alfred knew he would not have been one of the occupants on the lifeboat, even if it had been full. The crew had announced that women and children were given access to the lifeboats first and Alfred had spent his time while the ship was sinking helping women and their children onto every accessible lifeboat he could find. It hadn’t been his job to help them. In fact, Alfred had just been a regular passenger, on a trip home to New York after visiting his extended family in England. They had all been so elated to see him on the deck of the Titanic. He could only imagine what they would think of this grand ship now.

Alfred gripped the railing harder, his heart pounding in his chest, the rushing of his blood filling his ears. He shook from more than the cold. Tears burned his eyes and slowly slid down his cheeks before dripping off his chin. The realization that he was going to die hit Alfred like a ton of bricks.

He’d never see his family again and they’d never see him again. He’d never taste his cousin Arthur’s teas, have another sweater knitted for him from his mother, hear his uncles bicker after one too many drinks, or hear his twin brother Matthew scold him for doing something stupid. Alfred gasped as sobs wracked his frame and made it harder to breath.

The ship tilted beneath his feet. The inevitability of death didn’t seem to resonate with anyone else. They continued to scream and beg for help, whether it was from a crew member or whatever god they believed in. Alfred could have gone to pray with others in their impromptu plea for mercy, but Alfred couldn’t move. He collapsed over the railing and cried.

-

Ivan was tired. It was late, yet his pod was set on traveling south a soon as possible. It had gotten far too cold in the frigid waters of their old home. The distant sounds of screaming and calls for help woke Ivan from his drowsy state immediately. His pod seemed to share in his surprise and turned toward the direction of the screams.

They hadn’t planned on finding a shipwreck of this magnitude. People were screaming, drowning, and dying, clinging to handrails and walls as the massive ship sank below the waves. Ivan had grabbed a few unfortunate souls, only to find that they were dead in his arms.

Ivan kept his head above water, looking frantically around himself for anyone he could save. The screaming and splashing was dying down and they had only managed to get a few humans above water and near pieces of drifting parts of their sunken ship, before they froze to death from the freezing water that surrounded them.

Ivan registered splashing to his right and quiet gasps for air. Ivan plunged beneath the water and searched frantically for what had caught his attention. He hoped whoever had fallen beneath the waves was savable. So much death surrounded him and his pod. Ivan didn’t know how much more he could take.

It had been a young man that fell below the waves, his golden hair short and shifting with the ripples of the water and his blue eyes fluttered shut. Ivan caught him by the arm and pressed him against his chest. He swam up to the surface and held the human’s head above water. The human clung to him, shivering and coughing, struggling for air. He muttered something Ivan couldn’t understand, but Ivan was compelled to hold him closer. He couldn’t stay here, Ivan realized. He’d have to find something to place the human on, out of the water that would surely be the cause of his death.

Alfred gasped for air as a warm body wrapped around him and held him above the surface of the waves. Alfred clung to the person who had finally come to his rescue. He coughed and shivered violently, burying his frozen nose and quivering lips into the crook of the stranger's neck. "Help," he pleaded, hoping this person had been someone that had finally come to his rescue after Alfred had watched lifeboats full of people he had helped purposely pushed themselves further and further away from him. "Help me please," Alfred sobbed. He just had to see his family again. Next time they'd meet, Arthur would tease him about his bad habit of biting his nails, his mother would bake him his favorite pie, and Matthew would tell him how stupid he was for not getting on a life boat in time and forcing some poor soul to jump in and pull him into theirs.

Alfred felt the two of them move. He kept his eyes clenched shut. There was no point in looking around anyway. Everyone was dying around him, leaving behind an eery silence that was only disrupted by the lapping of the water against his skin. Whoever held him was swimming, Alfred knew that much, but how he managed to do so didn’t cross Alfred’s mind. He treasured the feeling of the warm arms around his chilled skin and the relief that he received from not having to fight the waves for his own survival. He was getting help and he wasn’t going to question it.

“Thank you… Thank you, thank you,” Alfred mumbled like a mantra into his savior’s shoulder. The arms around him held him a bit tighter as Alfred’s hold weakened. Alfred felt numb, his body and mind equally tired. His voice became weaker and slurred. Death disguised as sleep pulled and tugged at him, inviting and warm.

“No, no, keep talking, my friend,” The voice begged him in his ear, “I cannot lose you too,”

Alfred opened his eyes, barely able to see. His glasses had fallen off and sunk with the rest of his belongings. He couldn’t see who was holding him, other than hair so blond it looked silver and pale skin, but the specifics didn’t matter. The stranger continued to talk to him, pleading for him to say something back. Alfred murmured his responses, unable to form much of a coherent response his the haze of hypothermia.

“Here,” the voice in his ear said, “You can lay on this. You can’t stay in the water,”

Alfred felt something bump into his back and less than a second later he slipped beneath the water. The frigid water slipped past his lips and burned his nose and eyes. He was quickly grabbed again and held above the surface. Alfred coughed and sputtered, attempting to catch his breath. He struggled, with the help of his nameless savior, onto a piece of what felt like a tabletop than had floated away from the wreckage.

The table rocked and bounced, but eventually Alfred was situated on top of it, shivering and missing the warmth the body pressed against him had provided. A large hand cupped his cheek. Alfred opened his eyes and recognized the blurry face of the man who had saved him. “T-Thank you,” Alfred whimpered once again and pressed against the warm touch of the stranger in the water beside him. Alfred heaved for air, but the man who saved him seemed perfectly fine.

“I-I’m…” Alfred choked out, “I’m Alfred,”

“Ivan,” the stranger said, “I am Ivan,”

“Ivan…” Alfred weakly repeated, “I… like that name,” His eyes fluttered closed and he felt a light, tender kiss be pressed against his forehead.

“Stay awake,” Ivan instructed him. Alfred didn’t open his eyes. His mouth gaped open as he struggled to speak. “I-I am,” Alfred wheezed and slowly stopped shivering. He was still alive, his heart beat slow and weak. Ivan kept him awake, waking him up, talking to him, forcing him to respond. As time went by, Alfred stopped shivering completely. His lips turned a blue tinge and ice clung to his eyelashes and hair. Ivan kept his face close to Alfred’s, whispering words of encouragement and pleading with Alfred to stay alive for him. Ivan told him he longed to see him smile and how he danced with those peculiar feet of his. He needed Alfred to live a long life and to be happy. Ivan couldn’t place why he cared so much, but Alfred couldn’t die, not tonight. He kept Alfred talking, about his family, his life, his schooling, and his dreams. Ivan knew Alfred had too much to live for to simply let his beautiful light be snuffed out so soon. The remainder of Ivan’s pod lingered nearby, trying to tell him that there was no way Alfred would survive. Hundreds of others lay dead in the water, floating and frozen. Humans just weren’t meant to survive in these conditions. Ivan wouldn’t believe it.

Then suddenly, a light appeared in the distance and Ivan disappeared. Alfred panicked, believing Ivan had left him or died while he had dozed off. His panic was resolved when he spotted Ivan in the distance, calling and waving down the source of the light. Alfred slowly lifted himself up onto his elbows. The light soon became a ship and voices calling to him reached his ears. Before he could realize what was going on, Alfred was lifted up by his arms and pulled onto the deck of a small ship that had been sent out to search for survivors.

“It’s a good thing you flagged us down kid,” a sailor said as he covered him in a blanket and placed him on a stretcher.

“I-I didn’t,” Alfred struggled to say, his throat raw, “Ivan did,”

“Who?”

“I-Ivan… He saved me… Think… Think he jumped out of a lifeboat,”

“...Brave man,” one sailor said.

“Takes a lot of will to die for a stranger,” agreed another.

“H-He’s not dead… He was just here!” Alfred sat up in panic, but he was pushed back down on to the stretcher.

“Everyone else is dead kid,” they informed him, “They’re all just bodies. You’re delirious,”

In the warmth below deck, Alfred began to shiver again. The energy it took to warm his body took away any ability to cry for his lost friend. He had only known Ivan for most of the night and most of those hours had been spent delirious and confused. Ivan had risked his life to hold him throughout the night and Alfred was thankful for it. The kisses placed to his forehead had felt like something more, something special, but people do odd things when death was just around the corner. Alfred would never know. Ivan was gone and Alfred coudn’t ask him.

As he fell asleep, Alfred heard the crew talking, murmuring things about mermaids and mermen and how disappointed the poor things had looked. Yet, how glad they were to know that Alfred would survive. Alfred fought sleep with all his might, bargaining with himself that if he could stay awake a moment longer he’d get an answer to his questions. Exhaustion overpowered him in the end, but Alfred was able to realize one thing, Ivan had a tail.

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by a post about mermaids attempting to aid passengers of the Titanic. It quickly developed into an AU and a small on-shot about Ivan working tirelessly to save one of the last few humans still alive. Let me know what you think in the comments and don't be afraid to correct me on something if you see a grammatical error or something is misspelled.


End file.
